OPTOMETRY. The science of meas uring the vision and strength of the eye without the dilation of the pupil by the use of drugs, and the selection of proper lenses to correct defective vision.
The use of drugs to dilate the pupils while making an examination is not legal, except by a registered physician— an oculist.
The profession of optometry has been established by those opticians who de sired to place their work on a higher plane than that occupied by the ordinary seller of optical goods. An organization was formed in 1904, and committees ap pointed who worked for legislative regu lation of the practice of their profession. Minnesota was the first state to ac knowledge the new profession, but now almost every state, as well as the Cana dian provinces, recognizes and regulates it by legislative action.
The general requirements fort the prac tice of optometry are a thorough knowl edge of the principles of the profession, which may have been gained either in a recognized school, or by employment un der a practitioner of the profession, and a certain amount of high school work.
Some colleges, notably Columbia, Cali fornia, and Ohio State University, as well as the Rochester Athenium and Me chanics Institute, give training for this work, and schools teaching this subject alone have been established in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.
Test cards of graduated letters, cases of assorted lenses, and specially designed instruments, usually reflectors or refrac tors of light, are used in making the tests, the instruments having the widest use being the skiascope, the ophthalmom eter, the ophthalmoscope, and the phoro meter. Various test lenses are placed before the eye which is being tested, until the lens which best corrects a certain de termined defect is secured.